Saturday, July 31, 2010

Seriously, its not even 9PM on a Saturday night and I'm debating on going to bed. It has been an absolutely CHAOTIC week. My child, who will turn 22 months on Monday, has decided to really get into the throes of the terrible twos. With complete concentration and clarity. I never thought I'd see so much food be thrown at the same time from two little hands. Or the look of evil that comes across a toddler's face right before he head-butts you.

On top of that, he suddenly spiked a fever of 104 degrees on Thursday, for no freakin' reason. He was fine Wednesday. Sick all day Thursday, fever Friday morning and then fine by the afternoon. Weird! A quick trip to the pediatrician found a sore throat to be the culprit. Poor kid. He just laid on the floor. He was so pitiful.

Needless to say, I'm exhausted. On top of all this, I made waaaaaay too many appointments and plans this weekend to be working on virtually no sleep whatsoever. I had a MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) retreat last night where we discussed what vision we had for our MOPS group, and really have some great ideas for our new year. This morning I met with two Stampin' Up demonstrators to see all the goodies that one of them brought back from the recent Convention. This afternoon I went and got my hair cut and colored. Tomorrow its cleaning day. Monday I have to meet with some people from the Air Force Base (I'm a "key spouse" for the Air Force, meaning I'm the contact person for spouses, a liaison for them to get in touch with the command if needed). Then Tuesday my son and I are flying to visit family for a week. Eeeek!!

I haven't done any scrapping this week, or any crafting at all. The closest I got to crafting was cleaning out my craft room and reorganizing all of my crap. Yep, I call it all "crap". :) Oh, I did do one crafty thing. I made a "no sew french memo board". I'll take a pic and post it at one point or another.

That being said, here's what I've done in the past few weeks that I forgot to post. :)

Template Challenge at MLAS. Kit was an MLAS Designer Collab called "And Many More." Lots of cutesy birthday elements.

Speed scrap at MLAS. Using a kit called Fresh & Wet by Rucola Designs.

Speed Scrap at MLAS. Using a kit called "Love Checker" by Rucola Designs.

Since I'm on vacation for the next week-ish, I won't be posting. I won't be bringing my laptop, I just don't feel like dealing with carrying it onto the plane. Its bad enough I'll have my son in my lap (hello!! Gotta take advantage of him flying free until the last freakin' minute!), so I doubt I'll want to deal with expensive breakable electronics in my carry-on. :)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

So I know I haven't updated this in awhile...I've been reorganizing my crafting priorities and trying to make important decisions about what I want to do with my "spare" time.

I've decided to rejoin Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator, and had my first workshop last week! My upline was wonderful with allowing me to essentially take over the workshop she planned herself...so I'm very fortunate that I was able to. I have a few customers in my client base so far, and am hopeful I'll be starting with workshops, classes and clubs this fall.

I'm very excited about this new endeavour, and looking forward to doing something that can help my family financially.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Typically I like to do individual posts for each new layout I do...but frankly, its 11PM on a Sunday night, and I'm exhausted. So here you go.

First up is Dream Big Design's kit called Enchanted. Isn't it pretty?

I did a speed scrap with the kit at MLAS. I had to blend a photo into the background, which was my first time doing that! Fortunately another online contact had given me pretty good directions on how to do it. I love how it turned out. These two photos were taken right after we returned from a weekend trip to Dallas, the weekend where my son got horribly sick and had a temp of 105 degrees. After a shot of antibiotics (you can still see the band-aid on his leg), a bunch of drugs (hello, Tylenol and Motrin!), he was just completely exhausted. He was crawling between the bedroom door and bathroom door and just conked out on the floor. Poor kid!

The next layout I did was for the font challenge at MLAS. They do bi-monthly font challenges there, its a great way to accrue a lot of free fonts! I really like this font, its so cheeky and unique. The kit I used was a bunch of mini kits I picked up on a blog train MLAS had called Polar Opposites.

This next kit is also by Dream Big Designs, called My Kind of Christmas. How cute is this?? That little reindeer had me. :) I've been in a Christmas scrapping kind of mood, seeing as how its going to be in the mid to upper 90's all week and really humid. The grass is always greener I suppose: now I'm thinking of snow, sweaters, and Christmas jingles...and in December I'll be dreaming of heat. :)

The title is a font I found on dafont.com for free. I **LOVE** it!! Its so cute with little snowflakes. Check out that website, tons of free fonts in a variety of types!

I didn't scrap at all last week, so I spent all weekend (that I could) scrapping. I'm now scrapped out! I think I need to take a day of not staring at Photoshop. :) Of course, that won't happen. But a girl can dream. :)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

I volunteered to work with this cute kit to see what wonderful things I could come up with. I didn't have too much time, or I would have had a few more layouts, because this kit is really versatile and so fun! Its by JK Creations and called Duckling Rain, available at MLAS.

I love how my layout turned out. This was my cutie when he was only about 5 months old, on his first trip to the zoo during Spring Break when it was only about 45 degrees and yucky outside. He was such a trooper, just chilling in the carseat and looking around. :)

Flower Scraps has released a new kit called Eileen, available at Stuff to Scrap. Deanna intends to create kits that are modeled after her kids, so the first is based on her 5-year-old Eileen. Its all pink and girly and b-e-a-UTIFUL! Check out HERE for a free add-on!

I can't even tell you how much I loved working with this kit! Seriously. I am surrounded by boy stuff. All my scrap pages are blue or something that is relatively manly. To get into all this girly stuff....I was in HEAVEN. Freakin' LOVED IT!!!!

I created a 2-page spread based on my niece Lauren, and my husband's niece Isabella. They were our two flower girls at our wedding. Lauren was only 14-months old when we were married, and Isabella was only 2.5 years. They were so cute walking down the aisle! I had them walk with their moms (April, my sister-in-law was a bridesmaid, and Kristen, my sister, was my matron-of-honor), and they were just so doggone cute!

I love how the spread turned out. It was the first time I attempted the true 2-page spread: when I've done them previously, I've just had two documents opened and I fiddled with them. This time I did a full 12x24 inch document, then split them for posting purposes. I had so much fun doing this! I'm so hoping I have a little girl in the future so I can fiddle with more pinks and flowers and cutesy girl stuff. :)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

I have to admit, when I saw the title for this kit by Jenasis Design, I was scared. I thought with the word "girly" in the title it would mean I would REALLY have to think outside my boy-centered world! But this set, while it does have many girly elements, is so much more than that!! It is great for celebrating Independence Day, or any red/white/blue celebration you need. :)

Here are two layouts I made with the kit. The first was created using the June Template Challenge at STS. The challenge is awesome because it gives you the template, you just fill in your materials and photos. So it really helped me get out of a rut of using single photos on pages.

This layout was created to focus on the WEBN Fireworks in Cincinnati, Ohio. WEBN is a rock radio station there. They've done this fireworks show for as long as I can remember...since at least the 80's. They bring in two huge barges, both chuck full of fireworks. They even close two bridges and have stuff shooting, or falling, off of them! Its an awesome spectacle. It is loooong, going for 30-40 minutes. Its done on Labor Day weekend, typically the Sunday of the weekend so that way people have the next day to recuperate. It draws thousands and thousands of people to the banks of the Ohio River. When you're sitting on the Kentucky side of the river, you watch the fireworks with downtown Cincinnati as the backdrop. My dad used to live in a high-rise apartment complex in downtown Cincinnati, on the 26th (top) floor. So literally the fireworks were RIGHT THERE. :)

Ali Edwards One Little Word

About Me

My husband and I are stationed at Schriever AFB in Colorado. Our first child was born October 2, 2008, and I'm currently pregnant with our second son. I'm currently a Stay-At-Home-Mom, but am proud to say I'm also a certified elementary teacher with my Master's in Education. I hope to go back into teaching in the next few years...unless I decide my current "gig" with my boys is just too enriching!